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In 2013, I met a 12-year-old Syrian girl who had been shot in the back by a government sniper near Aleppo. Her name was Maysaa, and she was paralyzed from the waist down. “Am I a terrorist? Are all of the children they kill terrorists?” she asked, recuperating in an improvised medical facility on her way to a Turkish hospital. Despite her pain, she was overcome with anger, and she cursed the man responsible. “Children are being torn to pieces. May God tear Bashar al-Assad and his children to pieces.” Curses like Maysaa’s are seeds that took root in Syria ’s blood-soaked soil and have stubbornly grown. Now, more than a decade later, they are bearing fruit. The murderous tyrant who presided over the collapse of Syria, amid a brutal civil war, has finally fallen. Assad’s regime, responsible for more than 617,000 deaths, has evaporated in the face of an onslaught that began with a ferocious offensive by rebels in the northwest, and which was soon joined by anti-government fighters from every corner of the country. The end came quickly, in little more than 10 days. But the revolution in Syria against a regime that kidnapped, tortured, and murdered tens of thousands of its own citizens has been raging for nearly 14 years. The paroxysms of pain caused by the war in Syria have wracked the globe. It became an epicenter of chaos that tore apart the Middle East and changed the face of Europe. Millions fled into exile, abandoning their homes in a quest for safety for themselves and their children. The conflict unleashed ghastly atrocities, from nerve-agent attacks carried out by Assad’s forces that killed hundreds; to the routine bombing of hospitals by Russian and Syrian aircraft; to the spread of the Islamic State, which exported its own brand of terror around the world. Through it all, Bashar al-Assad ruled, stubbornly clinging to power through brute force no matter the cost to his people. He remains wanted for war crimes. Assad was nearly toppled, until he was shored up by a foreign intervention in 2015 that came in the form of Russian bomber aircraft and Iranian mercenaries. Those who took up arms to defy him have carried on the struggle through long years of despair, dissension, and indifference. Editor’s picks The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time When he became president in 2000, the son of Syrian despot Hafez al-Assad was praised as a potential reformer of the totalitarian state he inherited. His father had built a potent machine of oppression, using the Ba’ath Party — an anti-imperialist pan-Arab nationalist movement that seized power in 1963 — as a vehicle to ascend to power over the military and intelligence services, which he used to neutralize dissent and cement his rule. When Hafez al-Assad died, Bashar became president. Hopes were high that change would come to Syria with a leader from a new generation. A brief period of liberalization, which came to be known as the Damascus Spring, encouraged many Syrians as some political prisoners were freed and a crackdown on government corruption began. But any hope that Assad, who had trained as a medical doctor and had lived in London for years working as an ophthalmologist, would usher in a new Syria was swiftly dashed. The regime’s feared internal security and intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat, reasserted the grip of the authoritarian inner circle, rounding up intellectuals and dissidents. Damascus Spring turned into Syria’s winter, until 2011. Widespread civil unrest erupting across the region from a confluence of economic, ideological and social factors were soon dubbed the Arab Spring; Syria was not immune. A steady drumbeat of isolated protests became a movement in March, as Syrians took to the streets demanding democratic reform and the release of political prisoners. Mass protests and uprisings spread, starting a cycle of protest-and-crackdown that led to ever-increasing numbers of slain protesters. Related Content Trump's Day One Plans: Pardon Jan. 6 Rioters, Try to End Birthright Citizenship The Weed Industry Isn't Feeling Too Anxious About Trump 2.0 Who Is David Sacks, Trump's Pick for 'AI and Crypto Czar'? Team Trump Mocks Harris Campaign’s ‘Flawless’ Job to Their Faces Assad made no meaningful effort to address the widespread discontent that had started the uprising, choosing instead to blame “foreign powers” for fomenting unrest, and unleashing the security forces and military against his people. The country exploded into violence. By the summer, the protest movement had become an insurgency. Large numbers of soldiers were defecting and joining the protesters, and then organizing into armed militias. Protest became revolution, and descended into civil war. Tens of thousands were killed in fighting and indiscriminate shelling, while efforts to round up dissidents and critics of the regime went into hyperdrive. Hundreds of Syrians had long disappeared into the regime’s prisons, where they were raped, abused, tortured, and murdered. Now they did so in the thousands. The worst crimes and abuses committed by the regime have been documented in voluminous detail by human rights groups and international prosecutors. The broken bodies of the slain were thrown into mass graves, while many families were left without any clue as to the fate of their loved ones. Under Assad, people simply disappeared. The fractious rebel alliance formed the Free Syrian Army in July 2011, but the reality was that most of the anti-regime units could do little more than conduct insurgency operations, or hold defensive positions. Many were katiba — an Arabic word approximating “battalion” — relatively small groups of defectors and amateur soldiers organized around charismatic leaders or local strongmen. Coordinating their activities was challenging. Assad’s forces recognized no rules of war as they tried to crush the rebels, targeting noncombatants and even children with high explosives, sniper rifles, and machine guns. In 2013, they started using chemical weapons. A government unit in Damascus fired artillery rockets containing the nerve agent sarin against a neighborhood in the hands of the rebels. Estimates of the number killed range from 500 to more than 1,700. The scenes of men, women, and children choking to death — of entire families turned into piles of corpses as they huddled in the corners of basements to escape the shelling — shocked the world. Then-President Barack Obama declared that the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons had crossed a “red line,” and vowed to take action. In reality, Obama’s response was tepid. The U.S. fired long-range cruise missiles against a handful of military targets, while the White House secured a promise from Assad not to do it again. Damascus agreed to let an international organization oversee the destruction of chemical weapons stock and dismantle production facilities. But the U.S. and the West had shown their impotence, lacking the will to meaningfully support the Syrian rebels amid accusations of warmongering that grew in the shadow of the WMD lies that had led to the disastrous invasion of Iraq. The West wrung its hands over what to do, going back-and-forth for years over whether to support the revolution, and who to train and arm if it did so. Secular rebels — the “moderate” opposition preferred by Western leaders who parachuted in and toured refugee camps along the Turkish border, or met with opposition leaders with little real influence — struggled to assemble an effective fighting force amid vague visions of a democratic Syria and sporadic supplies of weaponry from abroad. But conflicts inevitably create power vacuums, and something always fills a vacuum. Insurgents and jihadis who had fought against American occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan flooded into Syria, sensing opportunity. The jihadis had a clear idea of what they wanted and how to achieve it. Armed with Gulf Arab cash and Salafi extremism, the worst of the lot swept aside its opponents and flooded across the country. They declared the establishment of the Islamic State in 2014. The same year, Russia — convinced by Western weakness, alarmed by Ukraine’s lurch toward Europe — annexed Crimea and sent its proxies into Donbas. The next year, it sent its forces to Syria to prop up Assad, joining the Iranians, who needed Syria as a bridge to funnel arms, training, and equipment to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Syria became a cauldron of violence. American warplanes were bombing the Islamic State in the east. Russian warplanes were bombing the Islamic State and rebels in the northwest. The Turks were bombing the Kurds in the north. Iranian proxies fought the Islamic State and rebels in the east, occupying key towns along the Euphrates River corridor. Millions fled renewed fighting. On Sept. 2, 2015, the body of 2-year-old Alan Shemu — widely named as Aylan Kurdi in initial news reports — washed ashore in Bodrum, Turkey . His family paid human traffickers nearly $6,000 to board a rubber dinghy to escape to Greece, and the overloaded boat capsized at sea. Photos of the lifeless toddler spread across the world, a heartbreaking exclamation point reminding the civilized world it had failed the people of Syria. The millions of people making their way out of Syria joined throngs of refugees from other conflicts and economic migrants trying to get into Europe, and the political consequences were seismic. Amid fear of terror attacks from the Islamic State and nativist fear-mongering about alien hordes, there came a surge of anti-Muslim bigotry as far-right, anti-immigrant political movements grew in popularity. On June 23, 2016, standing outside the Houses of Parliament in London, I watched as the Brexit referendum results came in, affirming that the U.K. would leave the European Union. Many Brits felt they were losing their country, and they wanted to do something about it. I wondered the degree to which fears about migrants and terrorism created by the war in Syria had played a role. Less than a month later, the morning after Bastille Day, July 14, I stood on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, looking at a still-wet bloodstain on the asphalt, that marked where a child had died — one among 86 people who had been run down by a madman in a truck, inspired by the Islamic State. I thought again of Syria. I had been in Brussels in March earlier in the year, when the airport was bombed; I had been in Paris the November before that when people were gunned down drinking at cafes or listening to a heavy metal concert in the Bataclan. Both attacks had been the Islamic State. It all went back to Syria. Around the same time as the attack in Nice in July 2016, rebel forces in Aleppo — Syria’s second largest city — had been cut off by Assad’s forces. The Russian air force was pounding the rebels. I spoke to people in the besieged city regularly — rebel fighters, aid workers, and doctors. In September, I spoke with a nurse who went by Umm Mohammed, an honorific pseudonym, while investigating the use of cluster munitions by the Russians. The maternity ward she worked in had just been bombed. “I didn’t know what to do with the children in the incubators,” she said, so she grabbed them two by two, using a small penlight to navigate the rubble and carry them to safety with the help of another nurse. “These kids are innocent, and they came into this world under very difficult circumstances. They came into this world during a war.” Few choose to live amid war. But when it comes, it is always the innocent who suffer the most. By December 2016, Aleppo had fallen to Assad’s regime. More than 30,000 people died before it was taken, two-thirds of them civilians. As war raged across Syria, the Kurds sought to forge their own enclave, along the lines of Kurdistan in Iraq. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were instrumental in defeating the Islamic State; now the SDF provided the firepower to maintain a multi-ethnic autonomous region home to Kurds, Syrian Arabs, Turkmen, Circassians, and Yazidis, among other ethnic groups, free from Assad’s rule. The success of the revolutionary Kurdish project in Syria, known as Rojava, drew the ire of the Turks, long wary of Turkey’s own Kurdish independence movement. Turkey, with its well-equipped military, had taken to intervening in the north of Syria with regular incursions when it felt its interests demanded action. In 2019, Turkey secured a promise from President Donald Trump to withdraw support for the SDF while Turkish-backed militias created a buffer zone separating the Kurds in Syria from those in Turkey. In Mardin, overlooking the Tigris and Upper Mesopotamia, I listened to Kurdish refugees sing songs of freedom and loss as their misty dreams of a transnational homeland were dispelled in the thunder and fire of Turkish artillery, and they were cut off from their homes in Syria. In 2022, when war came to Ukraine, I was there, too. I went to the front with elite Ukrainian Marines and airborne infantry, and with civilians who knew nothing of soldiering but volunteered to bear the burden of arms to defend their homes. I saw Russian fighter-bomber aircraft, and knew many of them were being piloted by the same men who had bombed hospitals in Aleppo. Little did anyone know at the outset of that invasion, Ukraine’s dogged resistance would sap the strength of Russia’s military machine. When Syrian rebels made their move starting last week, Moscow lacked the resources to send an expeditionary force to rescue Assad. Tehran, too, had seen its fortunes shift: its main proxy supporting the regime in Syria, Hezbollah, was decapitated by Israel after throwing in its lot with Hamas, after the surprise attack on Israel of Oct. 7, 2023. When contemplating current events, it can never be quite correct to say: “It all started here.” Everything that happens is a knot of the overlapping skeins that weave the pattern of history, and each individual thread can be traced back for generations, until we’re all sitting around arguing about the choices made by people who went to dust 1,000 years ago. We live in the now, and Syria is a nexus for our times. Syria’s civil war is an intricate web of violence, inhumanity, and unfulfilled dreams — whose pattern became the shape of modernity. Bashar al-Assad and the decisions he made have been at the center of that web, and it has touched the lives of millions. A Syrian friend who has been living in London returned to Damascus a few weeks ago, on her first visit to family in years. She was there when the offensive led by the militant Islamist group Hayat Tahrir ash-Sham (HTS) began. She changed her flight to leave earlier than originally planned, and tried to get out on Friday, but it was too late. She’s stuck there now, hoping for the best. There have been millions of Syrian stories like hers over the long years of war — of people compelled to make compromises; of being forced to abandon families and possessions; of getting trapped as a cyclone of violence descends. My colleague Anthony Shadid was a correspondent for The New York Times who died covering the war in Syria in 2012. The last time I saw him in person was as he visited the newsroom in New York with his son in his arms. He wrote once: “Cultures that may seem as durable as stone can break like glass, leaving all the things that held them together unattended. I believe that the craftsman, the artist, the cook, and the silversmith are peacemakers. They instill grace; they lull the world to calm.” No one can say what the future holds for Syria. Russia, the U.S., Turkey, and Iran all have a presence there. Every one of Syria’s neighbors will try to shape its future to their liking; every outside power will say it knows best what Syrians should do as they untangle 50 years of dictatorship. The myriad rebel groups that overthrew Assad represent a dizzying array of ideologies, religious sects, and ethnicities — Sunni Islamists, Kurdish separatists, Druze militias, Shia defectors. The group that led the charge which finally brought the dictator down, HTS, has a vision for Syria under sharia law. Its leader presents himself as a reformed jihadist, willing to accommodate Syria’s polyethnic, multi-religious reality. The dissident writer Yassin al-Haj Saleh — hated by the regime and jihadis alike — writes that the group’s “worldview is hostile to modernity and its values.” But he isn’t giving up. As thousands of prisoners are freed from Syria’s prisons, some for the first time in decades, and statues and photos of the dictator are torn down, there is cause for celebration, and hope. “Jihadists can’t be countered with despair, liberal critique, or secular sloganeering. We need a strong social and political coalition mobilizing across society,” al-Haj Saleh says. “Millions of politically active Syrians are the best safeguard against any extremist hijacking of the revolution.” Syria will need its peacemakers now. It will need those who instill grace and lull the world to calm. The only thing uniting Syria’s opposition forces over the past 10 days as they have taken the country has been hatred of Assad and his vile regime. And now he’s gone.bmy88 app download apk 。

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This resolution, first passed on December 5, 2007, aimed atensuring the equitable distribution of commercial spaces. However, it wasshelved after resistance from various business groups. In 2017, the councilattempted to enforce the measure, but the plan faced similar opposition,resulting in its delay. Recent deliberations by the council’s finance and economicdevelopment committee have reignited the issue. During a September meeting ofthe sub-committee on the allocation of stands and premises for development,discussions centered on introducing a policy to cap lease periods. However, itwas noted that the 2007 resolution already provided a framework to address thematter. The sub-committee chairperson, Councillor NtandoyenkosiNdlovu, sought clarification on how the council would implement evictions underthe policy. The council’s valuer and estates manager, Mr Thabani Ncuberecommended a case-by-case approach, acknowledging ethical concerns aboutimmediate evictions, especially for tenants with long-term leases. “Council would rather wait for the lapse of the policy andadvise the applicants accordingly. However, a notice in writing would be issuedout as a reminder of the new policy when applicants sought the renewal ofleases,” said. It was subsequently resolved to reaffirm the 2007resolution and proceed with its enforcement. Meanwhile, the council has issued a tender inviting bidsfor a variety of business premises across Bulawayo. These include tuck shops,kiosks, industrial stands, service stations, factory shells, social clubs, anda primary school site. Six tuck shops at various primary schools, includingMgombane, Sigombe, and Mtshane in Nkulumane, and Emganwini, Manondwane, andAisleby Farm, are up for lease. Two kiosks at Barbourfields Stadium and theBorrow Swimming Pool are also available. The council has advertised a service station in BarhamGreen and nine service industry stands in Emakhandeni, Luveve, and Cowdray Parkfor ventures such as hair salons, grinding mills, gas retailing, and welding.Six factory shells in Kelvin North industrial area are being offered foractivities like carpentry, tailoring, pottery, and electrical repairs. Other opportunities include leased shops in Makokoba andNjube, a primary school site in Montrose, and two social clubs in North End.One of the clubs is designated for amateur sports and social activities, whilethe other is earmarked for basketball. This initiative seeks to provide residents withopportunities to contribute to the city’s economic growth while addressing thelongstanding issue of equitable access to council-leased properties. ChronicleAnthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Reverses Anesthesia Policy After Swift Backlash

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Article content QUEBEC — Premier François Legault says he’s uncomfortable seeing people praying in public and places such as parks and his government is examining ways to ban it — even if it requires use of the notwithstanding clause to override fundamental rights. On the same day Education Minister Bernard Drainville announced Quebec will table new legislation reinforcing the rules of secularism in schools that will go beyond Bill 21, Legault used his news conference wrapping up the sitting of the legislature to again dip into the theme of identity politics. He said Quebec made a decision years ago to be a secular state and people today are “a bit fed up” to see displays of faith like people praying in the street. “I think we have to make the difference between public places and praying in a church or a mosque,” Legault said. “You should pray in a place that’s for praying, but in public parks or public streets ... we’ll look at what we can do, but that’s not what we want. “We will look at the means we can use, legally or otherwise.” Pressed by reporters on how he would proceed and whether that could entail use of the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to override fundamental rights, Legault answered in the blink of an eye. “Right now we’re studying all options,” he said. “I don’t have all the answers. It’s something we’re looking at.” “So you’re not saying it’s a no,” a reporter asked. “I’m not saying it’s a no,” Legault answered. It’s the farthest Legault has gone down the path of banning public displays of religion. In June 2019, shortly after coming to power, his Coalition Avenir Québec government adopted Bill 21, which barred persons in positions of authority such as teachers and police officers from wearing religious symbols in public. The government used the notwithstanding clause to shield the law from court challenges, but some groups are nevertheless trying to overturn it. The law, however, did not stretch as far as the public domain. Some jurisdictions have gone much further on religious restrictions than Quebec. Since April 2011, for example, France has imposed a ban on full-face veils in public areas. But at a news conference where he said the taxpayer’s pocketbook and identity issues are his current priorities, Legault agreed when asked whether he considers praying in public an issue. “To see people, on their knees, in the street, praying ... we have to ask ourselves the question. I don’t think it’s something we should see.” He said in the wake of such controversies as the emergence of religion in schools, Quebec needs to “send a clear message to Islamists.” “We will fight for the fundamental values we have in Quebec, like the equality of men and women,” he said. “We will never accept that people don’t respect these values.” He went further. Following the presentation this fall of a report suggesting Quebec equip itself with its own constitution , Legault said the idea interests him. He said Quebec could entrench in the constitution certain Quebec values that Quebecers hold dearly: laicity, the equality of men and women, the importance of integrating new arrivals. He said he has asked Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette to get working on the constitution. Asked when he wanted to see the plan, Legault said: “The sooner the better.” His comments come at the end of a session that, as was the case in 2023, was mired in controversy and setbacks. Into the second half of its second mandate, the CAQ struggled to stay on message despite numerous distractions, including trying to manage a record $11-billion deficit. Legault’s session started in September with the surprise resignation of his star minister of the economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, who said he no longer felt motivated enough to continue. His departure creates a fresh headache for Legault, who will have to call a byelection in the riding of Terrebonne at a time when the CAQ is way behind the PQ in the polls. That was followed two weeks later by the departure of St-Jérôme MNA Yourri Chassin to sit as an independent. In leaving he took shots at his old party, saying it has lost its way, falling into the trap of thinking the best way to solve problems is by shovelling more money at them. Things seemed to just get worse when the government’s landmark economic deal, Northvolt , hit financial turbulence with speculation the plant it has promised for Montreal’s South Shore might never be built. In the traditional season’s greetings exchanged with the other leaders as the session ended, Legault made a joke about the mess. “Last year I asked for a compass for Christmas,” Legault quipped. “This year I feel like asking for a battery. Here’s hoping Santa Claus does not go bankrupt.” But without exception, a series of polls showed the CAQ trailing the PQ and confidence in the government at a low ebb. One Pallas poll done for L’Actualité showed 53 per cent of Quebecers think Legault should resign rather than seek a third mandate. He defiantly responded, saying he guaranteed Quebecers he will run again . On Friday, he said he does not feel “pushed” in any way toward retirement and is even drawing energy from U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s threat of a 25-per-cent tariff on Quebec and Canadian goods. That is what concerns him, “not my election in 2026,” Legault said. “I say to myself, I had Covid and now I have Donald Trump,” he said. On the positive side, he said under his leadership Quebecers on average today have more disposable income than they did a year earlier. The government is also over the hump of negotiating a contract with public-sector workers. Things were not all rosy for the opposition parties, either. As was the case in 2023, Québec solidaire was mired in an internal caucus crisis after Maurice-Richard MNA Haroun Bouazzi sparked a controversy by saying some MNAs in the legislature were racist. With QS co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois on parental leave, new party co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal handled the end-of-session news conference on Friday. She insisted that “contrary to appearances,” QS remains united. Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said he’s hoping the looming Terrebonne byelection to replace Fitzgibbon brings a fifth PQ MNA into the fold. Interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay ripped into the CAQ and Legault, describing the government as “at the end of its runway.” “Mr. Legault is in his seventh year in office and in a free fall,” Tanguay said, noting the Liberals are rebuilding with a new leader to take his place in 2025. Many of the 18 bills adopted dated back to June, but several key pieces of legislation remain a work in progress. Among them is Bill 69 on the governance of energy, which remains on the order paper but was not adopted. When presented by former Economy and Energy Minister Fitzgibbon in June 2024, the bill was considered priority legislation for the government. After Fitzgibbon resigned, his replacement, Christine Fréchette, took on defending the bill, but it never made it past the consultation process. Last week, Fréchette blamed the lack of movement on the arrival of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump. She said his posture on tariffs, which would affect Quebec’s energy exports, has changed many of the givens of the bill. The legislature resumes sitting on Jan. 28, 2025. pauthier@postmedia.com X.com/philipauthierBenguet Corp. has secured the go-ahead from stakeholders to increase its authorized capital stock as the listed company gears up to expand its foothold outside the mining industry. In a stock exchange disclosure, Benguet said it secured the green light for an increase to P3.18 billion from P784.8 million, during the firm’s annual meeting of stockholders conducted via livestreaming. Benguet will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the application for a higher authorized capital stock. READ: Benguet Corp pushes expansion, diversification “The purpose of the capital increase is for the company to conduct a stock rights offer (SRO), stock option grants, and declare stock dividends in the future,” it said. A company such as Benguet carries out an SRO to provide existing shareholders an opportunity to purchase more shares at a discount. Proceeds from this transaction are used to settle debts or bankroll projects in the pipeline. In a stock option grant, an entity offers employees, consultants or executives the right to purchase a certain number of its shares at a predetermined price, subject to certain conditions. This developed as Benguet signified its intention to increase its activities not only in the mining sector but also in other industries such as renewable energy after settling its decades-long debt. Benguet disclosed it is focusing on its gold prospects as prices of the yellow metal soar. The company initiated the exploration of its gold concession area in Zamboanga Sibugay and is on the lookout for other copper-gold prospects. It is also studying a new technology for higher recovery of its gold tailing project in Itogon. Likewise, the firm continues to implement its drilling program at the Pantingan gold prospect in Bataan. It approved a budget of P50 million to support Phase Two of the drilling and exploration plan. Last October, Benguet secured the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ approval to extend its mineral production sharing agreement for another 25 years, which it expects will lead to the declaration for mining project feasibility. Benguet has an operating agreement with Balanga Bataan Minerals Corp. signed in March 1996. It covers 1,410 hectares situated in the towns of Bagac, Mariveles and Limay in Bataan. Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . The mining firm unveiled its plans to expand its portfolio to include construction, real estate, water, agribusiness and renewables as it became debt-free with the settlement of all its outstanding debts in October. —Jordeene B. Lagare

ANN/VIETNAM NEWS – “With the same monthly income of VND18 million (USD720), my family’s quality of life improved dramatically when I moved from HCM City to Binh Duong for work,” said Tran Trong Nhan, originally from Ca Mau in the south. After two years of living and working in Binh Duong, Nhan noted that his family’s finances had stabilised. “Living costs, including accommodation, are 20 to 50 per cent higher in HCM City compared to nearby provinces like Binh Duong. On the same salary, my family of three could barely cover basic expenses in the city, with no money left for leisure, travel, or savings,” he explained. He highlighted housing as a major factor, noting that renting a 20-square-metre room in HCM City costs between VND2.5 and VND4 million (USD100-160) per month, while a similar room in Binh Duong, with better quality, costs only VND1.5 million (USD60). Other expenses, such as kindergarten fees, are also significantly lower in Binh Duong. Thanks to the reduction in costs, Nhan’s family can now save money and spend on leisure activities, including family outings and trips. Nhan’s experience reflects a growing trend of workers leaving HCM City due to its high cost of living. Rising prices for housing, utilities, and daily necessities are making it increasingly difficult for many families to sustain themselves. Even those with stable jobs and decent incomes find themselves struggling to make ends meet. Another case is migrant worker Le Van Thuong, 26, from the central province of Thanh Hoa, who recently decided to leave after four years working in HCM City. Before moving south, Thuong worked for a tourism event organisation in Hanoi. Attracted by HCM City’s vibrant job market and abundant opportunities for young people, he moved to the city in 2019, just before the Covid-19 pandemic began. During the pandemic, he faced prolonged social distancing and harsh challenges After the city reopened, Thuong found work at an event organisation company with a monthly salary of VND15 million (USD600). However, high living costs in the city left him unable to save or even afford trips back to his hometown for holidays like Tet (Lunar New Year). “Living in HCM City is expensive. Home rent, food, and other essentials leave no room for savings,” Thuong said. After weighing his options for more than a week, he decided to move back to his hometown Thanh Hoa, where he found a job offering 20 per cent higher pay than his previous one in the city. Nhan and Thuong are part of a broader trend that is reshaping the labour landscape in HCM City. Over the past decade, the city has been a magnet for migrant labour from across Vietnam, thanks to its dynamic economy, infrastructure, and job opportunities.Broncos’ defensive front feeling John Franklin-Myers’ impact vs. run and pass: “He’s been huge for us”

Choosing the right camera for landscape photography often comes down to balancing image quality, portability, and usability. Full frame and Micro Four Thirds systems both have their strengths, but how do they hold up in real-world shooting conditions? This comparison puts two Panasonic cameras—a 47-megapixel S1R and a 20-megapixel GX9—through their paces to see how they fare. Coming to you from , this detailed video compares full frame and Micro Four Thirds cameras in a practical landscape setting. Friend tests the and side by side in various scenarios, starting with a waterfall at Cauldron Falls. Using rocks as foreground interest and a centered composition, the goal was to emphasize the waterfall with a long exposure. Despite the S1R’s ability to shoot at higher f-numbers without diffraction issues, the GX9 held its own, especially considering the resolution limitations of social media where most photos are shared. Another key test took place at Winskill Stones, a striking limestone area with a single photogenic tree. With flat lighting and gray skies, Friend opted for black-and-white compositions, simplifying the scene with square crops. While the S1R offered better usability with its larger viewfinder and more robust grip, the GX9’s compact size proved advantageous for portability. The comparison highlighted how both cameras excel in specific ways, depending on what you prioritize—image quality or ease of use. Friend also tackled the weight and handling of the two systems during his hike to Twistleton Scars. While the S1R’s durability and ergonomics made it a reliable choice, its hefty weight posed challenges on longer treks. The GX9, despite a small mishap involving a tripod fall, demonstrated impressive durability. Its lightweight build made it a strong contender for photographers looking to travel light without sacrificing too much image quality. The video emphasizes that both systems have unique advantages. Full frame cameras like the S1R offer higher resolution and better low-light performance, making them ideal for serious landscape work. Micro Four Thirds systems, on the other hand, shine in portability and convenience, particularly for casual outings or when weight is a concern. Friend’s tests reveal that neither system is inherently superior; the right choice depends on your needs and shooting style. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Friend. Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.NEW YORK (AP) — Richard Parsons, one of corporate America’s most prominent Black executives who held top posts at Time Warner and Citigroup, died Thursday. He was 76. Parsons, who died at his Manhattan home, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015 and cited “unanticipated complications” from the disease for cutting back on work a few years later. The financial services company Lazard, where Parsons was a longtime board member, confirmed his death. David Zaslav, the president and CEO of Time Warner successor Warner Bros. Discovery, remembered Parsons as a “great mentor and friend” and a “tough and brilliant negotiator, always looking to create something where both sides win.” “All who got a chance to work with him and know him saw that unusual combination of great leadership with integrity and kindness,” Zaslav said, calling him “one of the great problem solvers this industry has ever seen.” Parsons’ friend Ronald Lauder told The New York Times that the cause of death was cancer. Parsons stepped down Dec. 3 from the boards of Lazard and Lauder’s company, Estée Lauder, citing health reasons. He had been on Estée Lauder’s board for 25 years. RELATED COVERAGE Faith-based environmental groups take on fossil fuels as ‘a sacred duty’ Faith-based environmental groups take on fossil fuels as ‘a sacred duty’ Parsons, a Brooklyn native who started college at 16, was named chairman of Citigroup in 2009, one month after leaving Time Warner Inc., where he helped restore the company’s stature following its much-maligned acquisition by internet provider America Online Inc. He steered Citigroup back to profit after financial turmoil from the subprime mortgage crisis, which upended the economy in 2007 and 2008. Parsons was named to the board of CBS in September 2018 but resigned a month later because of illness. Parsons said in a statement at the time that he was already dealing with multiple myeloma when he joined the board, but “unanticipated complications have created additional new challenges.” He said his doctors advised him to cut back on his commitments to ensure recovery. “Dick’s storied career embodied the finest traditions of American business leadership,” Lazard said in a statement. The company, where Parsons was a board member from 2012 until this month, praised his “unmistakable intelligence and his irresistible warmth.” “Dick was more than an iconic leader in Lazard’s history — he was a testament to how wisdom, warmth, and unwavering judgment could shape not just companies, but people’s lives,” the company said. “His legacy lives on in the countless leaders he counseled, the institutions he renewed, and the doors he opened for others.” Parsons was known as a skilled negotiator, a diplomat and a crisis manager. Although he was with Time Warner through its difficulties with AOL, he earned respect for the company and rebuilt its relations with Wall Street. He streamlined Time Warner’s structure, pared debt and sold Warner Music Group and a book publishing division. He also fended off a challenge from activist investor Carl Icahn in 2006 to break up the company and helped Time Warner reach settlements with investors and regulators over questionable accounting practices at AOL. Parsons joined Time Warner as president in 1995 after serving as chairman and chief executive of Dime Bancorp Inc., one of the largest U.S. thrift institutions. In 2001, after AOL used its fortunes as the leading provider of Internet access in the U.S. to buy Time Warner for $106 billion in stock, Parsons became co-chief operating officer with AOL executive Robert Pittman. In that role, he was in charge of the company’s content businesses, including movie studios and recorded music. He became CEO in 2002 with the retirement of Gerald Levin, one of the key architects of that merger. Parsons was named Time Warner chairman the following year, replacing AOL founder Steve Case, who had also championed the combination. The newly formed company’s Internet division quickly became a drag on Time Warner. The promised synergies between traditional and new media never materialized. AOL began seeing a reduction in subscribers in 2002 as Americans replaced dial-up connections with broadband from cable TV and phone companies. Parsons stepped down as CEO in 2007 and as chairman in 2008. A year later AOL split from Time Warner and began trading as a separate company, following years of struggles to reinvent itself as a business focused on advertising and content. Time Warner is now owned by AT&T Inc. A board member of Citigroup and its predecessor, Citibank, since 1996, Parsons was named chairman in 2009 at a time of turmoil for the financial institution. Citigroup had suffered five straight quarters of losses and received $45 billion in government aid. Its board had been criticized for allowing the bank to invest so heavily in the risky housing market. Citigroup returned to profit under Parsons, starting in 2010, and would not have a quarterly loss again until the fourth quarter of 2017. Parsons retired from that job in 2012. In 2014 he stepped in as interim CEO of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers until Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took over later that year. “Dick Parsons was a brilliant and transformational leader and a giant of the media industry who led with integrity and never shied away from a challenge,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. Parsons, a Republican, previously worked as a lawyer for Nelson Rockefeller, a former Republican governor of New York, and in Gerald Ford’s White House. Those early stints gave him grounding in politics and negotiations. He also was an economic adviser on President Barack Obama’s transition team. Parsons, whose love of jazz led to co-owning a Harlem jazz club, also served as Chairman of the Apollo Theater and the Jazz Foundation of America. And he held positions on the boards of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Parsons played basketball at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and received his law degree from Albany Law School in 1971. He is survived by his wife, Laura, and their family. ___ This obituary was primarily written by the late Associated Press reporter Anick Jesdanun, who died in 2020 .April found out the truth about her mum's death It was an emotional episode of Emmerdale last night as April was kidnapped and held over the roof of a multi-storey car park before finding out the truth about her mum's death. Amelia Flanagan has played role of April since joining the soap in 2014 and since then has gone on to win awards at the Inside Soap Awards and The British Soap Awards. Soap villain Jade, was behind the kidnapping and used April as a way to get to Ross Barton to get answers over missing money. Aware of how dangerous Jade can be, Ross asked Charity Dingle to take their son away for a while but Charity was hesitant so Jade instead targeted April. Fans took to social media to voice their opinions on the episode with many slamming it as "too far". Jade made a video call to Ross and revealed that she had kidnapped April. As Ross headed off towards the location that Jade had sent him, he soon realised it's the multi-storey car park where April's mum Donna died in 2014. Ross told April how her mum had died following the ordeal. On the Emmerdale spoilers and Gossip UK Facebook page, one post said: "Tonight's episode with April hanging off the top of the car park is definitely a step too far for Emmerdale." There were several comments underneath the post with others saying: "It was a shocking episode especially with April, she shouldn't have been put through that it was so sad." Another added "April got in car with basically a stranger that shocked me of April she usually the sensible one. Guess we all make wrong choices in life at times." Further responses included: "Well I thought it was good and heartbreaking, I like April and felt for her but it’s a lesson never get in a car with strangers." One post on X read: "The scenes with April were shocking. I think they went too far. The flashbacks saved it though #Emmerdale." The ECHO has approached ITV for comment.

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